2021-03-10

Cool

• Denim clothing reduces venom expenditure by rattlesnakes striking defensively at model human limbs - PubMed

Worthy

• Earth and Moon Once Shared a Magnetic Shield | NASA

• Trapped Priors As A Basic Problem Of Rationality - Astral Codex Ten

• Criticizing Public Figures, Including Influential Journalists, is Not Harassment or Abuse - Glenn Greenwald

  This transparent tactic is part-and-parcel of the increasingly ideological exploitation of identity politics to shield the neoliberal order and its guardians from popular critique. Step lightly if you want to criticize the bombing of Syria because the Pentagon is now led by an African-American Defense Secretary and Biden just promoted two female generals. No objecting to the closeness between the Treasury Secretary and Wall Street banks because doing so is a misogynistic attempt to limit how women can be paid. Transportation policy should be questioned only in the most polite tones lest one stand accused of harboring anti-gay animus for the department’s Secretary.

  Taylor Lorenz and her media allies know that she is more privileged and influential than you are. That is precisely why they feel justified in creating paradigms that make it illegitimate to criticize her. They think only themselves and those like them deserve to participate in the public discourse. Since they cannot fully control the technology that allows everyone to be heard (they partially control it by pressuring tech monopolies to censor their adversaries), they need to create storylines and scripts designed to coerce their critics into silence.

etc

• In Pakistan, Legacy of Fake CIA Vaccination Programs Leads to Vaccine Hesitancy

• OVH data centre destroyed by fire in Strasbourg – all services unavailable

• Supercilious North Face Gets Its Classic 'Woke' Comeuppance | RealClearMarkets

• Group of bipartisan senators pushes for permanent Daylight Saving Time

  • I definitely approve of "quit messing with the clocks"; but why take the positive action of legislatively mandating them 'incorrect'; when "step back and cease this foolishness" seems so much more sensible? And of course there's the complication of "what is correct time, anyway?"

• Suspense in Iceland as dormant volcanic zone shows signs of life

  According to experts, any eruption would most likely occur in a fissure located between Mount Keilir and Mount Fagradalsfjall, in an uninhabited zone that poses no risk to human life or material damage.

Horseshit

• Sacramento, CA Makes DIY Auto Repairs Illegal - Odometer.com

  In summation, this law keeps car enthusiasts from completing more complex repairs which are outlined as jobs that would leave the vehicle inoperable for more than 24 hours. However more simple tasks like oil changes, tune-ups, tire changes, and brake changes, are allowed. In addition, you are not allowed to work on another person's vehicle. Also, work done on any vehicle must be completed at the home the vehicle is registered to. Talk about red tape.

  The new law also limits the use of many specialized tools for some reason too. The thing is many of these "specialized" tools are in fact common sights in garages. Restricted tools include air compressors, impact wrenches, and even tools as simple as torque wrenches. The law further defines these items as “tools not normally found in a residence.”

• French nuclear tests contaminated 110,000 in Pacific, says study - BBC News

  • no mention of Godzilla at all

• Banjo player for “Mumford & Sons” apologizes, leaves band for reading and liking a conservative book | Disrn

• (Oct 2020) One doctor’s campaign to stop a covid-19 vaccine being rushed through before Election Day | MIT Technology Review

• Record 3,200 Migrant Children Stuck in Border Patrol Custody, Past Legal Limit

• Air Pollution Kills Far More People Than Covid Ever Will

• America Without God: How Politics Replaced Religion

Media / Ministry of Truthy

• Fox News looks the other way as Biden's $1.9 trillion relief bill is passed

• Facebook and Twitter algorithms incentivize 'people to get enraged'

• Burning books — digitally

• Top digital journalism professor at Columbia calls for censorship of conservative media | The College Fix

• Apple denies Parler’s request for re-entry to the App Store

Identity Politics / Race Baiting

• High school required students to confess their “white dominance” to pass a class

• Harvard Library Ends Use of Subject Heading ‘Illegal Alien'

• From buggies to buses, the first Black-owned US automaker

• Prominent evangelical Beth Moore says she's no longer a Southern Baptist

• Tennessee panel votes to remove monument of KKK leader from state Capitol

• Coke demands that its law firms engage in unlawful discrimination | Power Line

TechSuck

• Millions of websites offline after fire at French cloud services firm

• Facebook denies being a monopoly as it asks judge to toss antitrust suits

• When Sky ECC fell, so too did Belgian crime lords

• Want to borrow that e-book from the library? Sorry, Amazon won’t let you

• SMS Forwarding One of Google Voice's best features is going away

• YouTube tells foreign creators they will soon be charged American tax

Economicon

• AMC revenue drops nearly 90% in fourth quarter, but CEO remains optimistic

• NFTs: Crypto grifters try to scam artists, again

• Netflix Needs a Baby Yoda

• Roblox Soars 43% on First Day of Trading as Gaming Booms

• GameStop drops by 40% in 25 minutes

  The stock rose as high as $348.50 per share on Wednesday, topping its record closing high from Jan. 27. The shares were then paused for volatility by the exchange. However, the shares lost all of those gains in a rapid decline around 12:30 p.m. ET. The shares were last down 12% at just under $200 per share and halted once again for volatility.

  + [GameStop stock extends win streak into sixth
  day](https://nypost.com/2021/03/10/gamestop-stock-extends-win-streak-into-sixth-day/)
  

  • GameStop Just Collapsed After Topping Record Close | ZeroHedge

• Post-Covid consumer spending boom 'implausible', says Treasury official

• Consumers' inflation expectations are the highest in 7 years

• Elon Musk becomes a record $25 billion richer in one day after Tesla shares soar 20%

• Kings of Leon Will Be the First Band to Release an Album as an NFT

• NFTs storm the art world. But that's just the 'tip of the iceberg'

• What to know about unemployment benefits in the American Rescue Plan

• Bitcoin climbs back above $55,000 as rally extends into 4th day

• Rally accelerates with Dow jumping 350 points to a record high, Nasdaq climbs more than 1%

• ‘This Is Unprecedented’: Why America’s Housing Market Has Never Been Weirder

• A Year After Being Laid Off, Millions Are Still Unemployed

Poilitcks

• comment re stimulus:

  I just left a meeting about upgrading the security at our local, rural, historic courthouse. As long as we throw in a thermal scanner with the x-rays and metal detectors, it'll be considered COVID prevention by the Feds and we can dip into our county's anticipated $6M from this package to pay for this.

• House Passes $1.9 Trillion Stimulus; Next Stop, Biden's Desk | ZeroHedge

  • Biden's $1.9T Covid-19 bill wins final approval in House

• Biden set to double down on China tech denial

• Exclusive: 'Migrant president' Biden stirs Mexican angst over boom time for gangs

• Twenty-eight states changed voting rules to boost mail-in ballots

• The Real Nursing Home Scandal Is Why Cuomo, Other Democrats Did It

• Pentagon approves extension of reduced National Guard presence around ...

  • Pentagon Approves Extension of Reduced National Guard Presence Around US ...

• Donald Trump is attempting a hostile takeover of the Republican Party

• FBI releases new video of DC pipe bomb suspect

• House Republicans, citing Britney Spears, seek hearing on conservatorships

• Marjorie Taylor Greene Delays $1.9 Trillion Stimulus Bill’s Final Passage In House

• House Democrats End Blacklist Against Vendors That Work With Primary Challengers

• Rep. Swalwell Claims GOP Senators Inspiring 'White Nationalists' To ‘Take Up Arms Against Their Government’ - The Lid

• Kyle Rittenhouse Trial In Kenosha Killings Delayed Until November

World

• China building offensive, aggressive military

• Russia moves to slow Twitter's speed after protest row, threatens total block

  • Russia accidentally shuts down state websites in Twitter slowdown

• Microsoft temporarily pauses new LinkedIn registrations in China

• Trader gets painted stones instead of $36m of copper - BBC News

  Geneva-based Mercuria Energy Group says it's been the victim of cargo fraud following its purchase of 10,000 tons of copper blister. When the cargoes started arriving in China, it found containers full of painted stones instead.

• Banned Terror Groups Uses Bitcoin to Transfer Funds to Counterparts in Kashmir

Health / Medicine / COVID

• Biden announces plans to acquire 100M more Johnson & Johnson vaccine doses

• New Book Confirms Fauci's NIH Funded Wuhan Bat-COVID Experiments At Understaffed Chinese Lab | ZeroHedge

• Pandemic blamed for falling birth rates across much of Europe

• We focused on Covid. Now our other patients are suffering

• Deadly pig disease could have led to Covid spillover to humans,analysis suggests

• 'U.K.' variant of COVID-19 up to 100% more deadly, study finds

• Healthcare workers at higher risk for Covid-19 in community than on the job

Climate / Green Propaganda

• China’s appetite for meat fades as vegan revolution takes hold

• Can insect pet food cut dogs’ carbon pawprint?

• Insatiable demand for cannabis has created a giant carbon footprint

  • Insatiable demand for cannabis has created a giant carbon footprint

  • Cannabis: It’s a Climate Gas

• Bezos plans to spend $10 billion by 2030 on climate change

• Direct Air Capture of CO2 Is Suddenly a Carbon Offset Option

Obit

• Lou Ottens, inventor of cassette tape, has died

• Roger Mudd, longtime network TV newsman, dies at 93

• Ivorian Prime Minister Hamed Bakayoko Dies of Cancer